Coming Soon: Star Trek

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IGN previews all we know about Kirk and crew's new mission.

By Phil Pirrello

Space, the Final Frontier will definitely show up. Ditto Romulans, Vulcans and phasers. Hell, even the ever-failing structural integrity makes an appearance. But no Shat. The pioneer of the viewscreen stare, the reason why Starfleet teaches its cadets what not to do in case of a transporter clone, the original James T. Kirk, is noticeably absent from J.J. Abrams epic retool of Star Trek, beaming into theatres this summer.

To make up for it, fans and summer moviegoers will instead be treated to we're-not-worthy ILM special effects, a sprawling feel to Trek's galaxy the franchise has never seen until now and lots of time traveling with Spock Prime (that's Leonard Nimoy, for all you newbies). Moreover, Trekkies will be treated to their sacred canon being altered while simultaneously honored, broken and fixed all shiny in less than two hours for what Paramount hopes will be the definitive take on what big-screen Enterprise missions are all about. Risky? Sure. Are we lining up for tickets? Affirmative.

Coming Soon, IGN Movies' new feature which lights the fires early on fandom's most anticipated blockbuster events, kicks off with a look ahead at the eleventh Trek film. We'll spotlight what we know, what we think we know and what we can't wait to see come May 8, 2009.

The Story (Warning: Spoilers Detected)

Trek is in good hands with writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci scripting, with some story help from director J.J. Abrams, Lost's Damon Lindelof and Bad Robot exec Bryan Burk. Officially, Paramount summarizes their tentpole like this: "A reboot of the venerable franchise that will focus on the early days of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto)." That's a really succinct, spoiler-free way to say that the Romulans, lead by a brooding baddie called Nero, full of space tats and sans ear tips, travel back in time to thwart the existence of one James T. Kirk. Based on the footage we have seen, it looks like they try to stop Kirk from being born by attacking his father while daddy's serving aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin. This battle, complete with disruptor blasts blasting and photon torpedoes, er, photon-ing, is rumored to occur at the opening of film and promises to show us a side of space combat we've never seen before.

This event, we hypothesize, again, based on the footage we have seen, inspires an older Spock to get in touch with his Skylar-looking past self and befriend/protect some cocky teen from Iowa, who is posed to become the finest officer to ever take the center seat.

Thank you, ILM.

Of course, we get to meet the other members of the Enterprise crew, treating their meeting as if it never would have happened had Spock not, in some way, intervened on behalf of his future self. But the crew's introductions are not what die-hard fans would expect. Kirk tries to pick up Uhura (Zoe Saldana) in a bar populated by Star Wars cantina extras, and soon after, Sulu (John Cho) steps up to his future commanding officer in the process. McCoy (Karl Urban) plays a key role in stealing Kirk aboard Enterprise once JTK is kicked off active duty. And Mr. Scott (Simon Pegg), with some help from Spock Prime, comes to Kirk's aid when the two officers meet on the same planet they have been banished to.

Anton Yelchin's Chekov is along for the ride, as is a character from classic Trek, Captain Pike, played by Bruce Greenwood. Judging by the trailer, it looks like Pike segues with his cadets to Enterprise, serving as captain for their first mission and, gulp, most likely getting a "He's dead, Jim" before the first hour is up. If Pike expires, leaving Spock in charge, expect that physical exchange glimpsed in the trailer between Kirk and Spock to be the first of many. And with Pine's Kirk galloping around the cosmos in the black tunic, and not the command yellow just yet, it doesn't take a room full of Vulcan scientists to figure out that Kirk most likely suits up in his traditional garb and takes command at the end, similar to how Bond earns his theme song and famous line at the end of Casino Royale.

"One question: Where the bathroom at?"

In regards to this best of both worlds storytelling – mixing the comfort food of classic Trek canon with the stuff that gets modern audiences into the seats – Lindelof told IGN that he enjoys feeding that anticipation among potential viewers – not misdirecting them, mind you, but giving them enough details to fuel imaginations."[We like] the idea of the level of excitement in saying 'what are they doing with Trek? What is it? I now have the sense that Kirk and Spock are in it. I know that Simon Pegg is playing Scotty so they're obviously doing the original series, but they trotted [Leonard] Nimoy out at Comic-Con so is he in a flashback? I hear they're doing time travel, so I don't know how all of the pieces fit together yet'."

So the puzzle consists of, for the cheap seats: A time-traveling Vulcan, a time-traveling Romulan hell-bent on eradicating the number one cause of death for guys named "Khan" and an action-adventure that culminates with Kirk, Sulu and a Red Shirt skydiving onto some sort of doomsday device, in an effort to save the galaxy. Epic and "can't wait" sums it up best.